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Ardmore, AL

Credit: Birmingham News

Early in the morning of May 18, Bull Connor and other police officers drive the Riders under cover of darkness to the Tennessee border in Ardmore, Alabama. The Riders are left on the side of a road in the middle of the night, and told to make their way back to Nashville. Instead, the Riders find refuge in the home of an elderly black couple. In Nashville, Diane Nash makes arrangements for a car to transport the Riders back to Birmingham the following day.

Students from the Nashville Student Movement return to Birmingham, Alabama after being driven by Commissioner Bull Connor to Ardmore, Alabama.

William Harbour

On Bull Connor driving Freedom Riders to the TN/AL border

The Governor

John Patterson, Governor of Alabama from 1958 to 1963, won election as a staunch segregationist. Patterson discusses his response to the Freedom Rides and his decision to refuse a phone call from President John F. Kennedy when the Freedom Riders encountered mob violence in Birmingham.